Jessica is passionate about animals and shares her experiences with a local cause at which she volunteers regularly.

Name: Jessica, http://www.twitter.com/InvitationsInk

Cause website: www.HappyTails.org

Happy Tails Pet Sanctuary Holiday Mailing
Our mission – to collate, stuff, and seal over 30,000 holiday mailers in one afternoon. Yeah, that did not happen (Happy Tails normally sends out about 3,500 mailers, but this year they received the mailing list from a very generous business owner and supporter.) With 20 volunteers throughout the 12 hours that day, we maybe hit the 1/3 mark…yikes, right!? We kept at it the next day for 14 hours, and then finally the next day we finished up almost exactly at 2pm for a total of about 32 total hours.

We had so many great volunteers, some were there every day for hours, some came for just one hour, some were young, some were old, one sweet elderly lady was legally blind, but every single minute they were there mattered and I’ll tell you why – Our deadline to get the mailers sent out before Thanksgiving was 2pm and our fully loaded trucks skidded into the mail house literally minutes after 2pm and just in time to make our deadline!

Thanks so much to Travis Pollock, Rashell Choo, Christina Roberts, Melanie Fisher-Balog and her niece, Evey Fisher for all coming out when I frantically begged for help, along with all the dedicated volunteers who always find time to help!

1. What were you expecting going into the event? An afternoon of stuffing and sealing envelopes in a house full of the usual volunteers.

2. What was one thing you saw or did today that you’ll remember from today’s event? I will always remember that every person who volunteers their time, whether it’s 30 hours or 1 hour, really and truly matters. It’s never too little, it all makes a difference.

3. Would you volunteer with this organization again? Yes, I volunteer here regularly on the eventscommittee and with special events.

More about Happy Tails Pet Sanctuary

Happy Tails Pet Sanctuary was Sacramento’s First No-Kill Animal Shelter, established in 1993. Over 200 volunteers help keep Happy Tails doing what it does best – saving lives. Animals are rescued (typically from drastic situations), provided with vet care, given a safe, loving environment and then placed in a carefully screened permanent home. All Happy Tails animals have the safety net of being returned at any time for any reason, that’s just how much they care about their animals.

Ways to help:

Always in need of foster home volunteers and adoption counselors
Answer voicemail (each person covers a certain shift once a week or so)
Clean up at the center (this includes play time with the kitties as well)
Special events & fundraising
Follow-up Phone calls to customers
Junior Volunteers can help clean up and socialize with the cats (ages 12-17)

Wishlist can be found at http://www.happytails.org/wish-list/

Volunteer informaion
Patricia L. Holmes Adoption Center
6001 Folsom Blvd.
Sacramento, CA  95819
(916) 556-1155
purrball@happytails.org

Open Wed – Sun from Noon – 6pm

Adults can volunteer by emailing happytailsvolunteers@yahoo.com to register for an orientation meeting

Juniors can volunteer by emailing happytailsjuniors@gmail.com to register for an orientation meeting